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  1. Comment on Bricks & Minifigs corporate stole a man's $200,000 Lego collection and told him to get bent in ~hobbies

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    They didn't return (or pay for) the collection though? I don't think justice was served if they never show up to (small claims) court or address the issue. The victim still doesn't have their...

    The store was sued, lost, and closed down.

    They didn't return (or pay for) the collection though? I don't think justice was served if they never show up to (small claims) court or address the issue. The victim still doesn't have their money.

    I'm glad you think this can go the victim's way in court eventually, once they get a good lawyer, which at this point I'm assuming they will because so many people want to help. But justice shouldn't be gated by wealth. I agree with you that some of the actions taken by the investigative youtuber helping the victim should not have happened, and that they should have gone to court sooner.

    14 votes

  2. Comment on Bricks & Minifigs corporate stole a man's $200,000 Lego collection and told him to get bent in ~hobbies

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    I know it's weird that I'm writing this, but I guess something hits different between "these cartoon villains defrauded millions of people with their wholesale evil schemes" vs "this company went...

    I know it's weird that I'm writing this, but I guess something hits different between "these cartoon villains defrauded millions of people with their wholesale evil schemes" vs "this company went out of their way to rob one specific elderly person, be extremely belligerent about it and weaponize law enforcement against the people helping him even when it became dubious whether it was in their best interest to do so."

    But I suppose at this point other instances of theft might come to light?

    7 votes

  3. Comment on Bricks & Minifigs corporate stole a man's $200,000 Lego collection and told him to get bent in ~hobbies

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    Would any american like to weigh in on this subject here? Because this whole story is dystopia-levels of incredible and not a great look. I'd love to know if there's a framing that makes this any...

    Would any american like to weigh in on this subject here? Because this whole story is dystopia-levels of incredible and not a great look. I'd love to know if there's a framing that makes this any less horrible, and I'm sure tildists can present it if so. I'd also like to know how you think this might develop in the future.

    Please disclose in the event that you have any affiliation with or connection to the university or church mentioned in the article.

    I'm also not sure how to tag this one so I appreciate any help with that!

    14 votes

  5. Comment on The Gen Alpha melody in ~music

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    Oh, it's a new Four Chord Song! They even drop a mention (Axis of Awesome). I'm really out of touch with modern pop music. The melody is "familiar" but the vast majority of these examples are...

    Oh, it's a new Four Chord Song! They even drop a mention (Axis of Awesome).

    I'm really out of touch with modern pop music. The melody is "familiar" but the vast majority of these examples are unknown to me...

    11 votes

  6. Comment on What's your favorite personal gaming memory? in ~games

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    I played so much Warcraft 2 as a kid! Designed a ton of maps for it too. It was a great game, despite the limitations at the time with only being able to move a few units at a time and horrible...

    I played so much Warcraft 2 as a kid! Designed a ton of maps for it too. It was a great game, despite the limitations at the time with only being able to move a few units at a time and horrible pathfinding. I think improvements in those areas were the big appeal with Age of Empires later (we were more excited for big army battles rather than Warcraft 3's smaller groups of units).

  7. Comment on Hot or Not : Temperature guessing game in ~creative

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    I'm pretty good at geography but I lost a few times with 1 degree differences because there's still such a big range of possible temperatures depending on just weather (I guess I could do better...

    I'm pretty good at geography but I lost a few times with 1 degree differences because there's still such a big range of possible temperatures depending on just weather (I guess I could do better if I knew sunset and sunrise times more accurately...)

    sourcing the photos

    Would there be a way to grab something at random from google maps or street view? If it works for geoguessr...

    (Doesn't solve my request but might solve your problem...)

    EDIT: Instead of finding public webcams, which would be more unreliable, how about just grabbing the visual weather indicator for the coordinates from a weather service?

  8. Comment on Hot or Not : Temperature guessing game in ~creative

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    Since the temperature is "current", I wonder if it would be possible to find a way to use "live" images, such as stills from webcams, rather than previously existing photos. Right now it feels...

    Since the temperature is "current", I wonder if it would be possible to find a way to use "live" images, such as stills from webcams, rather than previously existing photos. Right now it feels like there isn't enough information "in-game" to help you make your decision (I guess you can use your knowledge of geography and whatever awareness you have of today's weather...)

    4 votes

  9. Comment on What's your favorite personal gaming memory? in ~games

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    There are too many, so I'm going to answer a bit tongue in cheek, but... ...beating Bubsy. As a child. Have you any idea how long that took? How much effort? The sweat? The tears? The pain? Get...

    There are too many, so I'm going to answer a bit tongue in cheek, but...

    ...beating Bubsy. As a child. Have you any idea how long that took? How much effort? The sweat? The tears? The pain? Get absolutely fucked, Bubsy! You lose, my brother and I win!

    5 votes

  10. Comment on Updates to store tags: additions, removals, and edits in ~games

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    What would replace Experience, Mature/NSFW and Dungeons & Dragons?

    What would replace Experience, Mature/NSFW and Dungeons & Dragons?

    4 votes

  11. Comment on What has changed as you've gotten older? in ~talk

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    I remember that. You don't say it outright, but I hope you're implying that you've let go of that belief (and congratulations if so!) Next is pineapple on pizza. Baby steps.

    I used to think that women should stay at home and men should be out there working.

    I remember that. You don't say it outright, but I hope you're implying that you've let go of that belief (and congratulations if so!)

    Next is pineapple on pizza. Baby steps.

    7 votes

  12. Comment on Tildes Survey #5: Pineapple on pizza? (Results) in ~talk

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    Say one thing for Brazil, pineapple is so fucking good there... I never wanted to stop eating it...

    Say one thing for Brazil, pineapple is so fucking good there... I never wanted to stop eating it...

    3 votes

  13. Comment on Tildes Survey #5: Pineapple on pizza? (Results) in ~talk

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    Crappy cultivars grown to look good and have a longer shelf life come for us all. We have the same problem in Portugal with tomatos. The good ones didn't cease to exist, but they're certainly...

    Crappy cultivars grown to look good and have a longer shelf life come for us all. We have the same problem in Portugal with tomatos. The good ones didn't cease to exist, but they're certainly harder to find than your common supermarket produce section.

    I think just 10 years ago I still had access to good tomatos.

    3 votes

  14. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

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    In the past, I purchased Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Unfortunately, to my dismay, I soon found that this game was being sold by the publisher bundled with malware! Certainly it must have...

    In the past, I purchased Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Unfortunately, to my dismay, I soon found that this game was being sold by the publisher bundled with malware! Certainly it must have been an unintentional mistake, innocently made. Twirling its villainous figurative mustache, this malware refused to let me run the game I had purchased. Evil cackle! You shall never play this game! said the malware. Shrug, said I, refunding and moving on with my life.

    But recently I found out, through a certain wavy punctuation website, that there had been new and exciting advances in videogame malware unbundling technology. OwO! Could it be? So I sought out a certain Girl, who is in Good Shape, or possibly the Right Shape, or maybe she just makes things Fit, so to speak, and who had kindly and competently (just a couple days earlier) repackaged the game in a way that, if not free of said malware, at least neutralized it. Hurray! Another victory for non-paying-customers!

    TLC is a classic sidescrolling metroidvania (2.5D) featuring zero or more Princes of Persia. It took me just shy of 40 hours to beat it to a point that was reported in the loading menu as being beyond 100% (so I think you can assume I did "everything", except for the optional platforming busywork challenges, I did absolutely none of that). I played in Hero difficulty (harder, but not hardest) with no assists. Despite some jank and some minor design snafus, I'd call it a Good Game.

    You control Sargon, youngest of the Immortals, who in this story are a small, elite strike team of overpowered agents of Queen Thomyris of Persia. During the celebration of a victory, Ghassan, the purported Prince of Persia, is kidnapped by one of the queen's generals and our unit is sent to get him back. They follow the kidnappers to Mount Qaf, where a huge city built by former and much greater King Darius has been cursed and pulled out of the normal flow of time. All who enter are trapped, and that is where the rest of the game takes place.

    The visuals were fantastic. For as much as I enjoy a good indie game, it's always nice to experience a triple-A budget production once in a while. They really nailed the balance between epic scale, with beautiful background vistas of the vast abandoned city, huge temples and palaces, and the closeness of smaller, more intricate details (you can find bits of architecture here and there that don't stand up to scrutiny, but not a lot). A particularly impressive section takes place in a stormy sea that has been frozen in time. A fleet of invading ships is in the process of being torn apart amidst strikes of lightning. As you traverse it, the flow of time eventually resumes.

    The story is... OK. It soon becomes obvious that, while there's plenty of optional flavor (mainly conveyed through all kinds of "lore" items that you can find all over the place, including many written tablets, papyrus, etc.) the plot is there only in service of the gameplay. So while there are intense cutscenes throughout, the pacing seems very uneven as some things go either unexplained or overexplained for what amounts to an "everything wants to kill you, just kill them back" plot. All the characters are pretty cliche and no dialogue is possible or desired. Why are they acting like that? Who cares! Just murder all the bosses, one after the other!

    Which is fine, I guess, because the gameplay is excellent. Basic metroidvania traversal Wall Jump and Dash abilities are given pretty much immediately, but then the game focuses on the acquisition of some fairly interesting space manipulation abilities, like teleportation or a dimensional pocket (they can all be used in combat too!) You do get a double jump eventually, but fairly late in the game; fling is only acquired at the end and criminally underutilized. There is plenty of platforming to be had in the (huge) main map, which includes little challenges for collecting helpful power-ups or just "crystals" (money) and area-specific mechanics, including but not limited to the ol' reliable and traditional Spikes With Unfair Hitbox That Kill You From The Side For Some Reason.

    TLC has a really complex fighting system for a metroidvania. Sargon is capable of all kinds of combos, including ground combos, aerial combos, smashes, dodges, parries, charged attacks, surges (kind of a limit break), archery, chakram throws and other mechanics combining these things and your cool space manipulation mechanics (which are required by boss fights). There is a trainer NPC where you can learn each mechanic one by one, something you are encouraged to do by small monetary rewards. The citadel is full of grunt enemies, including corrupted soldiers, mutated animals and insects, ninjas... err, probably Assassins? Let's call them Assassins - and more. There are many minibosses and several bosses. All the bosses, which are part of the game's main progression, are big and epic and have at least three phases, but if you die you can retry them immediately. Fantastic! The same is not true of minibosses, however, which can make them (amusingly) more annoying than the actual bosses, as you have to walk all the way back from the checkpoint after dying.

    The way combat scales from regular grunts to major bosses is good at teaching you how you're supposed to be conquering fights in TLC: By learning enemy attack patterns and strategizing how to conquer each of them. As you progress through the game you acquire a variety of new surges, of which you can equip two at a time, and a crapton of different amulets, all with distinct benefits, which you can equip in a limited amount of slots. It really pays to choose the best tools to fight each boss and to invest on either upgrades (purchaseable) or looking around for additional health bar upgrades or potions (a traditional staple of the Prince of Persia franchise). It's also very important to make proper use of the parry; enemies' eyes will helpfully flash yellow for attacks that can be counterattacked after a parry and red for attacks that cannot be parried at all (must be dodged). It might seem safer to dodge most of the time, but some equipable amulets will provide rewards for each parry, and these are vital in difficult fights. Amusingly, as the amount of tools at your disposal increases, I found that fights became easier; earlier bosses were harder to beat.

    And that's essentially it. I have very little to criticize. Play TLC if you want a solid, satisfying metroidvania experience (with combat). You may at times fall through a wall, hit an invisible ceiling or be confused about how to progress, but it's rare. Tools are given near the end that help you find some (not all) of the collectibles you missed. Grinding common enemies is pretty much never needed. As the game ends, the game's weakest aspect, its story, is brought to the forefront. You never really learn what happens to the most intriguing characters - there is no closure at all. Maybe there is an element of Zoroastrian mythos I'm ignorant of that would have helped? Some other conclusions I found unsatisfying, but I don't want to spoil why. Just part of the general shallowness aspect of the characters, I suppose.

    DLC Note: The DLC features an independent zone with pretty difficult platforming. Your build in the main game does not cross over to the DLC area; there is little health available, "no" amulets or special attacks beyond two that are provided for you. All the strategizing and options you have in the main game are therefore not available here, greatly limiting potential solutions (and, consequently, my enjoyment). Since no amount of progress in the main game will help your DLC build, main game progress will actively hinder you here as it will get you used to moves you will not have access to every time you switch over to the DLC. So if you want to play it, I recommend doing so as early as possible (ie just after it unlocks). Checkpointing is also worse for some reason! As you can probably tell, I didn't love the DLC. I played it up to the final boss but did not bother with beating her.

    Previous

    8 votes

  15. Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books

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    I thought the author did a pretty good job of writing fairly distinctive books. They're less a series and more of a collection of independent novels that take place in the same shared universe.

    I thought the author did a pretty good job of writing fairly distinctive books. They're less a series and more of a collection of independent novels that take place in the same shared universe.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on Tildes Survey #5: Pineapple on pizza? (Results) in ~talk

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    For too many years I was scammed with bad dough. I might not have cared if I hadn't had real pizza as a teenager (in a restaurant that's long closed, by a place where I used to learn windsurf). It...

    For too many years I was scammed with bad dough. I might not have cared if I hadn't had real pizza as a teenager (in a restaurant that's long closed, by a place where I used to learn windsurf). It was the highlight of my week and I never forgot the flavor and texture. As I previously mentioned on tildes, I finally said enough is enough and started making my own good quality pizza, and not eating any fake pizza.

    I dislike pepperoni on pizza but my friends love it so I'll put it on for them. As for the other toppings, I have to disagree with italian tradition - almost everything is good, in the right combination! (But not too many at the same time.)

    Pineapple is traditionally served as part of Rodízio because the sharp, acidic flavor will contrast with all the fatty meats and reset your palate. As long as it's good pineapple, I've found that it admirably fulfills the same role on pizza, providing a great (and tasty) counterpoint for a variety of fatty salty ingredients. It's hardly the only pizza topping that can have a strong, acidic flavor - a good tomato is a prime example!

    I hope my assurance that I always add the olive oil (provided I'm not already using an unreasonably fatty topping, like pepperoni...) will somewhat redeem me in the eyes of every italian.

    My trick for stopping certain vegetable toppings from making the center of the pizza wet (on anything less hot than whatever modified firing kiln they use at restaurants) is to pre-cook them a bit in a frying pan to evaporate the water. Works like a charm.

    4 votes

  17. Comment on Why seven presidents is actually genius in ~society

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    I think in certain broken political systems, the "unspoken" reason why politicians are so opposed to working together isn't ideology, but money. In the countries mentioned politicians from...

    I think in certain broken political systems, the "unspoken" reason why politicians are so opposed to working together isn't ideology, but money. In the countries mentioned politicians from different religions and beliefs can at the end of the day function together for the betterment of the country. Why can't the same thing happen in some other countries? Sure, a system that promotes representation helps, but what if - and I know this is a mind blowing suggestion - what if those countries' politicians aren't motivated by the betterment of their countries to begin with? What if they're corrupt con artists robbing as much as they can from the populace now that they're reasonably sure they won't be guillotined?

    13 votes

  18. Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime

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    Click to expand spoiler. How about the child and the stan work together to avenge idol? :) I don't want to spoil anything for you so maybe we can talk some more after you catch up with the anime.
    Click to expand spoiler.

    "Child avenging parent" is a different vibe than "Idol Stan avenging Idol"

    How about the child and the stan work together to avenge idol? :)

    I don't want to spoil anything for you so maybe we can talk some more after you catch up with the anime.

    1 vote

  19. Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime

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    This is up to you, do what works for you and all, but personally, I think the remake loses a great deal of the original's charm in every way. Even if the old animation is crappy, the art style has...

    Maybe should try the remake as I think it has a dub and that might help?

    This is up to you, do what works for you and all, but personally, I think the remake loses a great deal of the original's charm in every way. Even if the old animation is crappy, the art style has a lot of character. The original also has a legendary voice cast with a lot of big names from that time having worked on it.

    1 vote

  20. Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime

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    I watch the anime but almost didn't because I hated the first (super long) episode so much. In fact I dropped it for a good amount of time and picked it back up later after seeing a lot of praise...

    I watch the anime but almost didn't because I hated the first (super long) episode so much. In fact I dropped it for a good amount of time and picked it back up later after seeing a lot of praise for it (it does get better).

    While I haven't yet had the time to watch season 3, based on what I know so far I really think they could have set up the exact same story without the weird vibes from the beginning.

    Spoilers only for the beginning of Oshi no Ko

    In fact, it's a common issue with reincarnation premises. Why did they have to reincarnate at all? I wish authors stopped shoehorning reincarnation into everything. I'm a notorious enjoyer of some reincarnation stories, but ffs. Have the idol, have the kids. If you need the doctor, make him a different character? Why not?

    2 votes